A number of personal assistants from Chisinau on Friday constituted an initiative group demanding to annul the order to dismiss a series of personal assistants and halve the salaries of the remaining personal assistants, IPN reports.
At a meeting held at the Chisinau City Hall, Natalia Hasan said that she has worked as a personal assistant for many years and this order is the last straw in the “genocide” committed so far in relation to people with severe disabilities. For years she fought for the rights of people with disabilities and was involved in creating legislation for the functioning of the Personal Assistance Service. And now these people are left to their fate.
The meeting at the City Hall with personal assistants was announced by the Party of Action and Solidarity’s group on the Chisinau Municipal Council. The group’s head Zinaida Popa said that, according to the legislation, the expenses associated with the organization and functioning of the Personal Assistance Service are covered by the local public administration within the limits of allocations earmarked annually in the municipal budget. However, by order of mayor general Ion Ceban, from January 3, 2024, the City Hall no longer hires personal assistants and terminates the employment contracts with them.
“There is a total of 145 million lei. We calculated 2,200 families. We do not need billions. There is 145 million lei that we have to provide in the municipal budget. When the budget is of over 7 billion lei, this is a drop in the ocean,” stated Zinaida Popa. According to her, the councilors must vote for this money to be found in the 2024 municipal budget.
Contacted by IPN for a comment, adviser to the mayor general Natalia Ixari said that the City Hall does not comment on “the electoral actions and statements of PAS regarding the serious situation they created through absurd reforms.” “They didn’t abandon one election campaign and started another one – the campaign prior to the presidential election for which they work every day. In fact, what they do every day is to distract attention from problems and the illegalities they commit. Among them are the closure of schools, universities, hospitals and the dismissal of functionaries from the social and educational systems. They also cut 350 million lei from the education budget for 2024 and seek to obtain this money them from Chisinau. The state debt over the past three years grew by 26 billion lei and the people don’t know what the money was spent on,” stated the adviser.
